The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-07-02

I ou pord mt me. How much money you got?"
 "Just one hundred and eighty-tw dollars" replied Felix.
 "You haf better put him in der safe," suggested the landlord.
 So Felix put the money in the safe. The landlord gave him a receipt for the amount and be started out after the evening meal to take look around. Just outside the door he encountered Jack Rawson and twenty or thirty others.
 "Hello, tenderfoot, what you doin' out hyer?" asked Jem Howe.
 "I have come out to join fortunes the rest of you are getting" said Felix.
 ''I tell ye, kid, whar you can strike it rich. Jest foller up the feelosipher -he's the old chap that rode up with us to-day. Keep follcrin' him up and yer can strike it rich," suggested Rawson. "What's your name?" he suddenly asked.
 "Felix Mitchell," responded the young man.
 "Well, now, I'll tell ye, Felix, what we'll do for ye. In the fust place, if you'll act far and squa'r, and not come mussin' around our diggin's, we'll let you live yere. In the second place, Fll seiest that you foller the feelosifer up. see he's taken fancy to ye. He'll hep yer cut. Now, what'll ye have?" asked Rawson.
 'I don't care for anything; 1 never take anything stronger than cider," re- turned Felix.
 "Come, Felix, yell have to drink, or we'll chuck ye in the gulch," said Jem Howe.
 These men, while not exactly brutal and lawless, saw lots of fun ill Felix. This was their idea of sport, and it was seldom they found tenderfoot to deal with.
 "'ll take some cider," ventured Fe- lix, "but please don't, for pity's sake, ask me to drink rum. My father died drunkard."
 "Yes, yer shall, too, take a big drink" said Jem, threateningly, as he advanced.
 "Look hyar, Jcm Howe, Pm the boss of this yer gulch, ain't I, boys?" interrupted Rawson, turning to the crowd in the room.
 "Yes, you are," was the universal answer from the twenty or thirty present.
 "Well, then, l say right yere this boy is squar, and he shall have his cider straight, and no tarnation rum with it"
 "But, shentlemen, I haf nein cider. haf some milk in der, kitchen" pro- tested the German, which assertion, unwittingly made, caused general laugh at Felix's expense.
 After week of prospecting around, during which time he had made some progress in getting acquainted with the "feelosifer," Felix began to get a little discouraged at the prospect of establishing claim.
 The kind hearted old man did what he could to assist the young man along by advice as to indications, etc., but the method was too slow for Felix, who, with the impatience of youth, wanted to strike it rich suddenly.
 Another thing troubled the young man. His shrinking manner and ap- parent timidity, traits of character despised by all miners, had gained him the title of Timid Felix. The men ill Red gulch had very little in common with Felix. Therefore, it was no unusual thing for Felix to go up the side of the mountain and visit the old man after his day of prospecting was over. A friendship sprang up be- tween this queer old man, whose right name was John Stevens, and Felix.
 The old man gave his history in brief to Felix, which was that he had studied for the ministry, married beautiful girl, who died soon after, which so unsettled him that, in '49, he started for California, and made for tunes at three different times, every one of which he lost through design ing men. This caused him to distrust every one. Finally he had drifted with the tide of adventures way up here in Idaho. But he hoped to make another strike and then go to his home in the east and live quietly after his seventy-two years of life, forty oI which had been spent in buffeting hardships. Jack Rawson continued to have his doubts about the safety o1 the treasure under Widows Rock. He said he "had seen the 'feelosifer' hang ing aroun' thar, an for no good pur- pose, either" The others finally agreed to the removal of the treasure the fol- lowing morning. But the next morn- ing found them buster than ever in the Fork, and they seemed to have forgotten the treasure. Late that evening, just before retiring, Felix took walk in the moonlight. The night was beautifully clear and cool incident to the elevation and season of lAl { I